2023 Symposium
Improving Health Through
Equity-Centered Solutions
2023 Event Details
From Inquiry To Action:
Improving Health through
Equity-Centered Solutions
This invite-only event featured:
- Keynote speaker Mary Basset, MD, MPH
- Presentations from health equity researchers Dinushika Mohottige, MD, MPH and Sidney Hankerson, MD, MPA
- Expert panel discussions on the application of cross-sector data to transform clinical care and cross-sector engagement to drive research.
- Opportunities for networking and project ideation
Hosted by the Mount Sinai Royalty Pharma Alliance for Health Equity Research
Featured Speakers
FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Former New York State’s Health Commissioner
Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH
FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Former New York State’s Health CommissionerMary T. Bassett, MD, MPH, is the Director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights in the department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. From December 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022 Dr. Bassett was on leave from Harvard and served as New York State’s Health Commissioner.
Prior to that, she served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Director for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s African Health Initiative and Child Well-Being Prevention Program; and as Deputy Commissioner of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Early in her career, Dr. Bassett served on the medical faculty at the University of Zimbabwe and went on to serve as Associate Director of Health Equity at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Southern Africa Office. After returning to the United States, she served on the faculty of Columbia University, including as Associate Professor of Clinical Epidemiology in the Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Bassett received a B.A. in History and Science from Harvard University, an M.D. from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, and an M.P.H. from the University of Washington.
Assistant Professor within the Institute of Health Equity Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Dinushika Mohottige
Assistant Professor within the Institute of Health Equity Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiDr. Dinushika Mohottige MD, MPH (she/her) is an Assistant Professor within the Institute of Health Equity Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Barbara T. Murphy Division of Nephrology and a general nephrologist. She engages in patient and community-centered, inequity-focused research around the impact of socio-structural factors/racialized medicine on kidney health and kidney transplantation. As part of this work, she has interrogated the role of race and other sociopolitical variables in clinical algorithms including kidney function estimation and considered the role of racism and related socio-structural factors on kidney disease. Dr. Mohottige is a member of the National Kidney Foundation Health Equity Taskforce, the National Kidney Foundation Transplant Advisory Committee, the 2022 NIH PhenX Social Determinants of Health Committee, and the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) National Coordinating Center Health Equity Committee, and the Medical Advisory Board of NKF Greater NY and CT. Dr. Mohottige received a B.A. in Public Policy and a Health Policy Certificate from Duke University in 2006, where she was a Robertson Scholar. She then earned an MPH in Health Behavior/Health Education from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and a medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, followed by Internal Medicine/Chief Residency and Nephrology training at Duke University.
Associate Professor, Institute for Health Equity Research; Vice Chair of Community Engagement, Department of Psychiatry Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Sidney Hankerson M.D, M.B.A
Associate Professor, Institute for Health Equity Research; Vice Chair of Community Engagement, Department of Psychiatry Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiDr. Hankerson is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Community Engagement in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also Director of Mental Health Equity Research in the Institute for Health Equity Research (IHER) at Mount Sinai. His research focuses on reducing racial/ethnic disparities in mental health treatment. He is a nationally recognized expert at engaging faith- and community-based organizations to increase access to culturally relevant mental health care.
Dr. Hankerson has presented at the White House, United Nations, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Gracie Mansion (NYC Mayor’s Office), and numerous national academic conferences. He currently serves on the National Football League’s (NFL) Mental Wellness Committee. The National Academy of Medicine selected Dr. Hankerson as one of 10 physicians in the U.S. for its Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Program in 2021. He was an inaugural member of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Council of Faith and Community Partnerships and served on the APA Council of Minority Mental Health and Health Disparities.
He has been featured on several TV series: the PBS Documentary Mysteries of Mental Illness; a Pix11 News Special focused on mental health in the Black community; and a CBS segment about Mount Sinai’s partnerships with faith-based organizations.
Dr. Hankerson completed a dual MD/MBA program from Emory University, where he was Medical School Class President. He completed his psychiatry residency at Emory and was appointed Chief Resident of Psychiatry at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. He then completed a NIMH-funded research fellowship at Columbia University Medical Center and was on faculty at Columbia for 12 years before transitioning to his current leadership roles at Mount Sinai.
Cross-Sector Data:
Executive Director Health Equity at Independence Blue Cross
Seun O. Ross
Executive Director Health Equity at Independence Blue CrossSeun Ross is the Executive Director Health Equity at Independence Blue Cross. She has responsibility for crafting and implementing the strategy to achieve health justice for all Independence members. Through her leadership, IBC has established condition specific goals to reduce inequities and has formed a Regional Coalition to Eliminate Race Based Medicine that includes all the health systems in the PA5 and contiguous counties. Her career has centered around social innovation, health policy, public health interventions, system reform and addressing equity.
Dr. Ross is a published author, most recently as a committee member of the National Academies of Medicine-Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Saves Lives; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-Advance Practice Nursing Leadership: a Global Perspective; and the American Nurse Credentialing Center- The Doctor of Nursing Practice and the Executive Role. She has lectured on many topics within her research interests, which include health equity, SDOH, healthcare policy, and evidence based practice. She received The Coppin State University Healthcare Award from the Helene Fuld School of Nursing, the Women of Achievement Award from the Philadelphia Tribune and the Health Equity in Business Award from March of Dimes-Philadelphia.
Dr. Ross earned her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s Degree from Coppin State University and her Doctoral Degree from Chatham University. She is a member of the board of directors for Childrens Crisis Trauma Center (CCTC), MontCo Mommas, and a member of the Academy of Healthcare Executives and holds certifications as a family nurse practitioner.
EVP, Chief Clinical Officer at Beth Israel Lahey Health
Dr. Robert Fields
EVP, Chief Clinical Officer at Beth Israel Lahey HealthDr. Robert Fields is a family medicine physician and serves as the EVP, Chief Clinical Officer at Beth Israel Lahey Health a Harvard affiliated, 14 hospital system in Boston, MA. In this role, Dr. Fields leads system efforts for quality and safety as well as the strategy and operations for primary care, behavioral health, and post-acute service lines. He also leads the system’s 1115 Medicaid waiver response while also advising on various population health initiatives. Until February of 2022, Rob was the EVP and Chief Population Health Officer at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City where he led population health and managed care.
Dr. Fields began his career as an independent primary care physician with a particular concentration on underserved Latino patients in Western North Carolina. He came to Mount Sinai in March of 2018 as the SVP and CMO for Population Health and led the redesign of clinical operations for value including care management, quality programs, remote monitoring and condition management, social determinants, and other aspects of the system’s population health strategy. He was promoted to Chief Population Health Officer in 2021 where in addition to his previous role, he developed the contracting and strategic pricing strategy for the system and led Mount Sinai’s direct to employer business. He recently joined Beth Israel Lahey Health in March 2023.
Dr. Fields has previously served as the Board Chair of the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) and the Board of America’s Physician Groups (APG) and Healthfirst. He is also a member or chair for various national committees on quality and measure development for the National Quality Foundation and CMS. He earned his medical degree from the University Of Florida College Of Medicine, and completed a Family Medicine Residency at the Mountain Area Health Education Center in Asheville, NC where he was Chief Resident. Dr. Fields earned his Master of Health Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Co-Founder COO of HealthVerity
Andrew Goldberg
Co-Founder COO of HealthVerityAndrew is the co-founder and COO of HealthVerity, a leader in synchronizing transformational technologies with the nation’s largest healthcare and consumer data ecosystem to power previously unattainable outcomes and fundamentally advance the science. HealthVerity offers a comprehensive, yet flexible approach, based on the foundational elements of Identity, Privacy, Governance and Exchange (IPGE), that synchronizes unparalleled Identity management with built-in Privacy compliance and Governance, providing the ability to discover and Exchange a near limitless combination of patient data at a record pace
He was formerly the SVP Strategy and Marketing for Dialogic. He was responsible for corporate development and global marketing and the company’s sale to Novacap. He was previously the Vice President, Corporate Development for Avaya which was sold to Silverlake/TPG. Andrew co-founded Eziaz, a venture-backed broadband access company. He also held various roles at Comcast, Bain & Company and Diageo.
Andrew holds an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School and a BA with Honors from the University of Pennsylvania.
Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research,
Chair, Department of Population Health Science, Weill Cornell Medical College
Rainu Kaushal, MD, MPH
Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research,Chair, Department of Population Health Science, Weill Cornell Medical College
Rainu Kaushal, MD, MPH, is the Senior Associate Dean for clinical research, chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences, and Nanette Laitman Distinguished Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine. A distinguished information scientist and health services researcher, Dr. Kaushal leads Weill Cornell Medicine’s clinical research enterprise, bridging cutting-edge science with patient care.
Dr. Kaushal has made significant contributions to pediatric patient safety, health information technology, and value-based healthcare delivery in the US. She has led several key studies on interoperable health information technology and serves as the principal investigator of INSIGHT Clinical Research Network, the country’s largest urban clinical database. Her research also closely examines the impact of social determinants of health and socioeconomic disparities on healthcare utilization and preventable hospitalizations. Dr. Kaushal is currently spearheading a large PCORnet study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Part of the federal initiative Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER), the study aims to characterize post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV2 (PASC) infection and determine at-risk populations. Using advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence models to detect symptom patterns in electronic patient records, Dr. Kaushal and her colleagues have published groundbreaking research on the epidemiology of long COVID in diverse populations.
Dr. Kaushal is also a committed educator. She has established four novel master’s programs, including a joint Executive MBA/MS in Healthcare Leadership with the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, a doctoral program in population health sciences, and a research fellowship with 200 students matriculating annually. An author of over 200 papers in various scientific publications, Dr. Kaushal is a frequently invited speaker at national and international meetings. She also serves on multiple boards and advisory committees and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Association of American Physicians.
Cross-Sector Engagement:
Kenan Distinguished Professor of Social Medicine and Medicine, Director, Center for Health Equity Research, and UNC Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.
Giselle Corbie, MD, MSc
Kenan Distinguished Professor of Social Medicine and Medicine, Director, Center for Health Equity Research, and UNC Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs.Giselle Corbie, MD, MSc is a Kenan Distinguished Professor of Social Medicine and Medicine, Director, Center for Health Equity Research, and UNC Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. Dr. Corbie is internationally recognized for her scholarly work on the practical and ethical issues regarding involvement of minorities in research to address racial disparities in health.
Dr. Corbie has led local, state, and national research and policy efforts to advance health equity. She has effectively developed and conducted research across systems to address the health needs of vulnerable populations with the goal of eliminating health disparities, while providing support to pre-doctoral, post-doctoral and junior faculty trainees. A talented convener of collaborative, cross-sector teams and a highly sought-after speaker, Dr. Corbie leads programs to help leaders and teams achieve the transformational structural change needed to advance equity.
In 2018, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine for her ground-breaking contributions toward achieving community and population health equity. She has served in numerous state and national advisory committees. She has been the principal investigator of grants funded through the National Institute of Health, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities, the National Institute of Nursing Research, and the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Founder & Executive Director, Project Momentum
Mysha Wynn
Founder & Executive Director, Project MomentumChief Executive Officer at the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health
Marilyn Fraser, MD
Chief Executive Officer at the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban HealthDr. Marilyn Fraser is the Chief Executive Officer at the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH), a Research Associate Professor in both the Department of Medicine and the School of Public Health at the SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, and the co-Director of the Brooklyn Health Disparities Center. Previously, as Deputy Director and Associate Director for Research & Training, she managed the Institute’s community outreach and research programs.
Dr. Fraser, as co-leader of an investigative research team supported by several NIH and CDC grants, helped develop behavioral health intervention models and training curricula for AAIUH’s award-winning Black Pearls and Different Fades of Health programs. The Institute’s community outreach programs prepare hairstylists and barbers to educate their clients about various health topics, including breast, prostate and colorectal cancer, cardiovascular disease, and HIV/AIDS risk reduction. She also served as the Co-PI in conducting the Institute’s ACCESS project to increase access to health and social services for formerly incarcerated individuals in Brooklyn.
Guyanese-born Dr. Fraser is a graduate of the Spartan Health Sciences University School of Medicine in St. Lucia and did her medical training in the West Indies, Mexico, and the United States. Dr. Fraser has received numerous awards including the Health Award from the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, and the prestigious Fulbright Research Specialist award to develop and implement a climate change and public health internship program for secondary school students in Trinidad and Tobago. She was also the recipient of the Innovator Award from the Bedford Stuyvesant Family Health Center, the Community Award from the Nurses Association of the Counties of Long Island (NACLI), as well as an extraordinary woman of Downstate recognition. She was also nominated to serve on the nationally acclaimed Clinical & Translational Science Award (CTSA)’s Community Engagement Domain Task Force. Dr. Fraser was honored as a Power Woman in Brooklyn and received the special Health Award. She was also honored as the winner of the Crain’s Heritage Healthcare Leadership Award and named one of Crain’s Notable Women in Healthcare. Most recently, Dr. Fraser was honored as one of the CUNY School of Medicine’s 2021 Strong Women in Medicine. Dr. Fraser regularly presents her work at scientific meetings, nationally and internationally, and is a co-author on several publications and a book chapter.
Dr. Fraser’s deep interest in addressing health disparities and improving health outcomes in communities of color also allows her to serve as an expert advisory board member with the NYC Diabetes Prevention Project.
Executive Director, NYC Mayor's Office of Food Policy
Kate MacKenzie, MS, RD
Executive Director, NYC Mayor's Office of Food PolicyMacKenzie advises the Mayor of the City of New York on all issues related to food policy, including the City’s commitment to decrease the carbon footprint of its food purchases 33% by 2030.
Under MacKenzie’s leadership, Food Forward NYC, the city’s first-ever comprehensive food policy plan, which lays out a framework to reach a more equitable, sustainable, and healthy food system by 2030, was released. She leads the City’s Good Food Purchasing commitments, focused on increasing access to healthy, sustainable foods for the over 230 million meals and snacks served daily by City agencies, from public schools to senior centers.
She led the City’s interagency COVID-19 food response to ensure that no New Yorker experienced hunger due to the pandemic. She also oversaw the development of Groceries to Go, which provides New Yorkers with an online electronic voucher to buy healthy foods from local businesses.
Kate is a recognized leader with over two decades of experience building food security and broader anti-poverty solutions in New York City and nationally. Kate holds a master’s degree in public health nutrition from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in nutritional sciences from Cornell University. She is also a registered dietician.